Divisibility of Matter.—We may be readily convinced of the infinite divisibility of bodies, by simply walking in a garden, and inhaling the sweet incense that rises from a thousand flowers. How inconceivably small must be the odoriferous particles of a carnation, which diffuse themselves through a whole garden, and every where strike our sense of smell! If this is not sufficient, let us consider some other objects of nature; as, for instance, one of those silk threads, the work of a poor worm. Suppose this thread is three hundred and sixty feet long, it will weigh but a single grain. Again, consider into how many perceptible parts a length of three hundred and sixty feet can be divided. A single inch may be divided into six hundred parts, each as thick as a hair, and consequently be perfectly visible. Hence a single grain of silk can be divided into at least two millions five hundred and ninety-two thousand parts, each of which may be seen without the help of a microscope. And as every one of these parts may be again divided into several more millions of parts, till the division is carried beyond the reach of thought, it is evident that this progression may be infinite. The last particles, which are no longer divisible by human industry, must still have extension, and be consequently susceptible of division, though we are no longer able to effect it. If we examine the animal kingdom, we shall discover still further proofs of the infinite divisibility of matter. Pepper has been put into a glass of water, and on looking through a microscope, a multitude of animalcules were seen in the water, a thousand million times less than a grain of sand! How inconceivably minute then must be the feet, muscles, vessels, nerves, and organs of sense, in these animals! And how small their eggs and their young ones, and the fluids which circulate in them! Here the imagination loses itself, our ideas become confused, and we are incapable of giving form to such very small particles. What still more claims our attention is, that the more we magnify, by means of glasses, the productions of nature, the more perfect and beautiful do they appear: whilst with works of art it is generally quite contrary; for when these are seen through a microscope, we find them rough, coarse, and imperfect, though executed by the most able artists, and with the utmost care. Thus the Almighty has impressed even upon the smallest atom the stamp of his infinity. The most subtile body is as a world, in which millions of parts unite and are arranged in the most perfect order.
CHAP. LXXXV.
MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES.—(Continued.)
The Jew’s Harp—Remarkable Aqueducts—Crichup Linn—Eddystone Rocks—Dismal Swamp—Curious Wine Cellar—Mint of Segovia—Remarkable Mills—Silk Mill at Derby—Portland Vase—Murdering Statue—A Curious Pulpit.
The Jew’s Harp.—The Jew’s trump, or Jew’s harp, as it is often called, though now a boy’s instrument, is of ancient origin, for Mr. Pennant informs us, (Tour to Scotland, p. 195,) that one made of gilt brass was found in Norway, deposited in an urn. There appears to be an allusion, in the name, to the inhabitants of Judea; and it is to be observed, that in Dodsley’s old plays, vol. iv. p. 171, Quick calls the usurer, on account of his Jewish avarice, “a notable Jew’s trump.” In the plate, however, of Jewish musical instruments, in Calmet’s Dictionary, nothing of this kind occurs; so that perhaps there is a corruption here of jeu-trompe, a plaything, or play-tromp, as it is now only used by boys for that purpose; or it may be a corruption of Jew’s harp, from the circumstance of its being placed between the teeth when played.
Remarkable Aqueducts.—Aqueducts are conveyances for carrying water from one place to another; made on uneven ground, to preserve the level. Aqueducts of every kind were long ago the wonders of Rome; the vast quantity of them which they had; the prodigious expense employed in conducting waters over arcades from one place to another, at the distance of thirty, forty, sixty, and even one hundred miles, which were either continued or supplied by other labours, as by cutting mountains and piercing rocks: all this may well surprise us, as nothing like it is undertaken in our times; we dare not purchase conveniency at so dear a rate. Appius Claudius, the censor, devised and constructed the first aqueduct. His example gave the public luxury a hint to cultivate these objects; and the force of prodigious and indefatigable labour diverted the course of rivers and floods to Rome. Agrippa, in that year when he was edile, put the last hand to the magnificence of these works.
The aqueduct of the Aqua Martia, had an arch of sixteen feet in diameter. The whole was composed of three different kinds of stone; one of them reddish, another brown, and a third of an earth colour. Above, there appeared two canals, of which the highest was fed by the new waters of the Tiverone, and the lower by what they called the Claudian river. The entire edifice is seventy Roman feet high. Near this aqueduct, we have, in Father Montfaucon, the plan of another, with three canals; the highest supplied by the Aqua Julia, that in the middle from Tepula, and the lowest from the Aqua Martia. The arch of the aqueduct of the Aqua Claudia is of hewn stone, very beautiful; that of the aqueduct of the Aqua Neronia is of bricks: they are each of them seventy-two Roman feet in height. The canal of the aqueduct which was called Aqua Appia, deserves to be mentioned for a singularity which is observed in it; for it is not, like the others, plain, nor gradual in its descent, but much narrower at the lower than the higher end. The consul Frontinus, who superintended the aqueducts under the emperor Nerva, mentions nine of them which had each 13,594 pipes of an inch in diameter. Vigerus observes, that, in the space of twenty-four hours, Rome received 500,000 hogsheads of water. Not to mention the aqueducts of Drusus and Rhiminius, that which gives the most striking idea of Roman magnificence, is the aqueduct of Metz, of which a great number of arcades still remain. These arcades crossed the Moselle, a river which is of vast breadth at that place. The copious sources of Gorze furnished water for the representation of a sea-fight. This water was collected in a reservoir; whence it was conducted by subterraneous canals formed of hewn-stone, and so spacious, that a man could walk erect in them: it traversed the Moselle upon its superb and lofty arcades, which may still be seen at the distance of two leagues from Metz; so nicely wrought, and so finely cemented, that except those parts in the middle which have been carried away by the ice, they have resisted, and will still resist, the severest shocks of the most violent seasons. From these arcades, other aqueducts conveyed the waters to the baths, and to the place where the naval engagement was exhibited.
If we may trust Colmenarus, the aqueduct of Segovia may be compared with the most admired labours of antiquity. There still remain one hundred and fifty-nine arcades, wholly consisting of stones enormously large, and joined without mortar. These arcades, with what remains of the edifice, are one hundred and two feet high; they are formed in two ranges, one above another. The aqueduct flows through the city, and runs beneath the greatest number of houses, which are at the lower end. After these enormous structures, we may be believed when we speak of the aqueduct which Louis XIV. caused to be built near Maintenon, for carrying water from the river Bucq to Versailles: it is perhaps the greatest aqueduct now in the world, being 7000 fathoms in length, above 2560 in height, and containing no fewer than two hundred and forty-two arcades.